he called in to cbs in new york, and they were able to catch his voice around the country on cbs radio. that is the first time that cronkite was ever heard. the point of this is that cronkite was a serious print reporter. a serious journalist. somebody who covered everything in the united states, and then during world war ii, he was able to cover normandy and the battle of the bulge, and he was at the nuremberg trials and the liberation of europe and all of these things, which gave them gravitas before he went on tv. not just a newsreader, but someone who had the journalistic chops. the thought of 1981 and the fact that cnn had just launched, we were still a country with three nightly newscasts. that's where people got their news. we did not have a great marketplace of choices on cable. we didn't have the internet or twitter, displacing everyone and everything is the as the main source of news. i can't imagine what mr. cronkite would think of the world today he encountered it. i would imagine it would seem very unfamiliar beginning with the fact that many fewer people watch the evening